The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: December 3-6

Nashville has come a long way in becoming an indie mecca to go along with all the rootsy stuff, but Civil Twilight has come even further. The brothers McKellar and their mates came to Music City all the way from Cape Town, South Africa (by way of L.A.), with a sound more like some of the top British bands of the past few years.

Debuting with 2010's Civil Twilight and releasing Holy Weather earlier this year, the quartet's atmospheric, electronically enhanced pop-rock never strays too far from the Coldplay/Muse/Radiohead orbit, but does so with a winsome ambition and enough genuine talent to raises the music above mere homage. CHRIS GRAY

Chris Knight, Cody Canada, Jason BolandHouse of Blues, December 6

For country folk, stripped-down guitar pulls like KILT's "10 Man Jam" seem to be popular around this time of year. However, this House of Blues mini-pull the week before has a few big advantages over KILT's big December 12 Bayou Music Center event. With only three performers, this one won't last all damn night, and it's open to the public rather than being a listener-only exclusive event. But most important, Canada (of the Departed), Boland (of the Stragglers) and Knight (a sort of thinking man's John Mellencamp) have enough Haggardesque blue-collar grit between the three of them to outlast ten men. CHRIS GRAY